Boat braves choppy waters for vaccine delivery in Alaska

HOMER, Alaska — A remote Alaska village has received its first delivery of the coronavirus vaccine by boat after it travelled through choppy waters during a storm that prevented air travel.

The journey last Thursday allowed first responders in the village of Seldovia — population 430 — to receive the Pfizer vaccine for the virus that has killed 193 people in the state as of Tuesday, The Homer News reported.

Normally, nurses and nurse practitioners from the SVT Health & Wellness Center in Homer travel weekly by air to Seldovia to help with health care in the village. But on Dec. 17, poor visibility meant a small boat was needed to transfer a crew of four medical personnel and the vaccines to the village about 250 miles (400 kilometres) south of Anchorage.

Capt. Curtis Jackson, owner and operator of the boat, said conditions were rough with up to 4-foot (1.2-meter) waves and “pretty poor” visibility.

The crew, which included a nurse, two nurse practitioners and a medical assistant, travelled for about an hour across Kachemak Bay, normally a 30-minute trip, said Jackson, a captain for Mako’s Water Taxi.

“That little blue box was the best Christmas present a tired boat captain could ask for, my friends,” Jackson said in a post on Facebook. “This might be the start of what’s getting to be better and better news. It’s pretty emotional.”

The vaccine doses delivered to Seldovia went to first responders as part of the initial tier of Alaska residents to receive inoculation, said Laurel Hilts, marketing and public relations director for Seldovia Village Tribe, the Alaska Native tribe that runs health clinics in Homer, Seldovia and Anchor Point.

Homer also received the coronavirus vaccines last Thursday, with the first doses administered that morning at South Peninsula Hospital, health officials said.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some — especially older adults and people with existing health problems — it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.

The Associated Press